So, I had this weird idea bouncing around in my head for a bit, called it ‘cookie hoodie’. Sounds dumb, I know. Wasn’t really about baking or clothes though. It was more like a tiny web thing I wanted to try out.
Figured I’d just dive in. Made a super basic HTML file, you know, the usual `*`. Then a `*` because plain HTML looks awful, right? And a `*` file, ’cause I knew I’d need some logic for the ‘cookie’ part.
Setting Things Up
Didn’t use any fancy frameworks or anything. Just plain old vanilla stuff. Kept thinking, how simple can I make this? The goal wasn’t some big application, just messing around with browser cookies in a visible way.
Dealing with the Cookie
Alright, the cookie bit. This was the core idea. I wanted to see if I could store something simple, like, maybe if you’d visited the page before. Went digging into how JavaScript handles `*`. It’s kinda clunky, honestly.
First tried setting a basic cookie like `visited=true`. Seemed easy enough. Then I had to figure out how to read it back when the page loaded again. Took a few tries, lots of `*` to see what was actually happening. Realized I needed a little helper function just to pull out the specific cookie I wanted, ’cause `*` just gives you everything in one messy string.
Making the ‘Hoodie’
Okay, so what’s the ‘hoodie’? It was just my silly name for the visual part on the page. I made a simple `div` element in the HTML. Gave it an ID, maybe `hoodie-box` or something. Styled it a bit with CSS – gave it a background color, some padding. The idea was to change how this ‘hoodie’ looked based on the cookie.
Maybe change the background color if the `visited` cookie was set? Yeah, something simple like that. Just a visual cue tied to the cookie’s state.
Connecting the Dots
Now, making them talk to each other. In the JavaScript, when the page loaded, I added the code to check for my `visited` cookie. Used that helper function I mentioned.
If the cookie existed, I grabbed the `hoodie-box` element using its ID and changed its style. Maybe set the background to green. If the cookie wasn’t there, I set the background to red (or whatever) AND, importantly, I then set the `visited=true` cookie so next time it would be green.
Testing Time!
Opened the page. Red box. Cool. Refreshed. Green box! Nice, it worked. Cleared my browser cookies for that page, refreshed again. Back to red. Then green on the next refresh. Seemed okay.
Hitting Snags
Wasn’t perfectly smooth, of course.
- At first, the cookie wasn’t setting reliably. Forgot about needing to maybe set a path or expiration, though for this simple test, the session cookie was fine mostly.
- Then the CSS change wasn’t applying. Realized I had a typo in the element ID in my JavaScript. Classic mistake. Spent like 10 minutes debugging that.
- Also, understanding the format of `*` was a pain. Why’s it gotta be like that? Just give me a simple object, please!
Just fiddled around, tweaking the JS, checking the browser’s developer tools under ‘Application’ to see the actual cookies being stored. Trial and error, mostly.
What Came Out
So, in the end, I got this super basic page with a colored box. The box’s color tells you if you’ve been there before in that browser session (or until the cookie expires, depending on how I set it). That’s it. That’s the ‘cookie hoodie’.
Nothing groundbreaking, obviously. But it was a good little exercise. Just wanted to get hands-on with cookies directly, without libraries abstracting it away. Sometimes you just gotta build the simple, kinda dumb stuff to really get how things work underneath. Felt good to just make something, you know? Even if it’s just a colored box changing based on a cookie.
